WORLD : Cocaine Trafficker Draws 27 Years
A businessman was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison today for masterminding the smuggling of a record 7,300 pounds of Colombian cocaine into the United States in hollowed-out lumber last spring.
U.S. District Judge George C. Carr rejected tearful pleas by Michael Tsalickis, 61, to impose a lighter sentence. Tsalickis, jailed since his arrest last May, faced from 10 years to life for his conviction in October on two counts of smuggling and two counts of drug trafficking. During a monthlong trial, the government claimed he was working with a ruthless Colombian drug organization known as the Cali Cartel.
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